reserving the right to object. i ask unanimous consent that not with standing rule 22 at 1:00 a.m. >>. >> he wants him to lose the vote earlier so that the government won't shut down. coming up on the 11th hour brian has someone who was the staff secretary to president obama. that is the job that rob porter had in the trump white house until today. you'll find out how important and sensitive that job is. the 11th hour starts now. the breaking news we are covering tonight is the government shutdown deadline now an hour away. one man, rand paul, stands in the way of a vote.

plus another unfolding crisis after allegations of domestic abuse lead to the departure of another close aid and one of rob poert's two ex-wives, the 11th hour on a thursday night begins now. good evening once again from our headquarters. day 385 of the trump administration. it now appears we are headed towards the second government shutdown in less than three weeks. the u.s. senate has ad journed until 12:01 a.m. at issue here federal funds run out at the stroke of midnight. the senate has yet to vote on a spending plan agreed to yesterday as we heard in the

announcement. the bill adds up to a massive increase, about $400 billion for two years. out of 100 u.s. senators one man, republican senator rand paul of kentucky has been holding up the vote. he has been blocking any other progress in an attempt to force a separate vote to force spending increases. >> i ran for officer because i was very critical of president obama's trillion deficits. i can't in all good faith just look the other way. what we are looking at is a bill decided no secret. 700 pages were released at

midnight and for the most part had not been read. if you were against the trillion deficits, why are you when you put a republican name on it? >> senator rand paul is a republican. the libertarian branch to be sure. there's an r after his name. senator paul can delay a vote until 1:00 a.m. the number two republican had to say about rand paul. >> so the senator from kentucky by objecting to the unanimous consent will effectively shut down the federal government for no real reason. i know he wants to make a point. he has that right.

i agree with many of his concern about deficits and debt. we are in an emergency situation. >> so nice to see everybody getting along. where ever the senate votes the spanding plan has to then has to face the house where it faces opposition from a number of democrats who are not in the majority. today house democratic leader nancy pe low sis said she will not support the bill. now, let us bring in garrett. i understand the clock to run this way. the house has been told to be prepared for a vote between 3:00 and 6:00 a.m.? >> yeah. and that's probably an optimistic assessment.

it is guaranteed. it will wake up tomorrow morning and find their government shut down. you laid some of this out at the top. it was to slow things down. he can't stop this vote. this bill will pass on the united states senate. what you have got right now is rand paul acting as the nagging conscience that the same way he does. he will remind them of that tonight slowly and painfully unless the clock ones out. it has to happen some time in the early hours of friday. >> speaking of slow and painful have a former clarm who i will get to in just a minute.

it is true. deficits in modern era. it is under the democrats. critics have said wait a minute. it ran through the tax cut we have just witnessed. republicans will say it is logically consistent. they think they are starving or shrinking government. if you want to look at it the way many republicans do that is the peoples money doesn't belong to them. that's how they make that argument. it is very difficult to square if you just care about the

bottom line that these two things aren't related. that's the argument from the left. he has done the impossible tonight. he is united. et essentially everyone who will vote in opposition of the way he is handling this. they will get on which will be a big deal and the house and weeks to come. let's talk about the immigration thing. it is what we knew would be a long night.

it is a let's resolve daca with nothing cluttering it. is that what we are talking about next week? >> not exactly. the majority leader has now said he will bring ensz sssentially clean bill. this kind of thing isn't done anymore. it will be a wide open amendment process. let the best idea. they can tell you what's going out. in the house. they don't and this vote right now on funding the government for the next month or so. they would be entirely dependent to have a similar project such as this. so far paul ryan hasn't been willing to go for that.

the senate is secretly planning to go later than posted times. that is the arrival of one or both of these things, pizzas or cots. have you seen evidence of either? >> i have seen significant quantities of pizza but no cots so far. >> the pizza confirmation. thank you, buddy. former rnc chairman and msnbc analyst why are you smiling, mr. chairman? >> it is all so amusing. >> right until you remember how serious it is. right until you remember this is our government at work.

that's the sad part. it's not at work. >> everybody is like okay. here we go. here we are tonight with less than an hour before the whole thing closes down. here is the thing. i like and appreciate what rand paul is saying. i'm sitting here going i remember getting a lot of guys elected to congress. it would not spend a dollar more than we were talking in. you passed a tax bill increased by 1.5 trillion over the next ten years. willing to go back and you'll

have to come here again. it is not the last time you'll have this conversation on either the debt ceiling or the deficit. >> i watched carefully the conversation on rachel's broadcast. a lot of people have been careful not to confuse rand paul with jimmy stewart. i think that's the most polite way of putting this. rand paul, while he has had some libertarian stands is not winning friends tonight in that chamber. >> that is one of the more normal aspects of this. we don't know what it is. it is almost comforting to see something familiar which is rand paul upsetting all of his republican colleagues. that seems familiar here. it is something that matters i guess or that is something that is right for your opponent to go after you on either a primary in the general election. in donald trump's republican

party, i mean donald trump personifies switching back and forth and positions. he gets away with it. what i think members -- some members care about it more than others. we have seen republican members congress, they can't all get away with the same things that he does. you can forsee a situation where some members are held accountable. >> let me bring in rachel. she has been standing by. it sounds like the snickers commercial, not going any where for a while. rachel, what have we missed? it is that you could add. >> so basically we are hearing that republicans and democrats

the house needs about four hours to reopen the government. that's assuming that nancy pelosi of paul ryan would make a promise to hold a daca vote. it is to reopen the government. the reason why is because they are expecting a strong vote in the senate at 3:00 a.m. when the world is sleeping but it will put pressure on the democrats over here and ultimately they will be able to reopen the government before anyone tries to go to work and plight be sent home if they are a government employee. >> rachel, we talked about this last time. shutdowns have real consequences.

there is the chance that a cdc researcher in atlanta who is chasing down a strain of flu that is effecting children. we'll have to put his or her research down. a park ranger getting ready for visiti visitors in california. a military contractor at any of the chow lines will have to stop work or expect a difference in their paycheck because of this. there are real life consequences far from capitol hill. what lawmakers have you run into tonight who have a kind of seething frustration because they know that this matters? we are able to see this and we are kind of taking account of it. >> yeah. so i talked to charlie a coupleover houcouple of hours here.

he said rand paul and the neighbor that beat him up, he said i understand why the neighbor did what he did. it is not to professional thing to say. he speaks his mind. that just shows you the level of anger republicans have at rand paul right now. the thing they point out is yes, he is taking a stand. he is saying this is not what conservatives should be backing and he is objecting to the process. we just saw this 700 page bill 24 hours ago. no member has had time to go through this before they cast this vote. shu shutting down the government is irresponsible. a lot of people don't aproprovef congress. there is a lot of anger on this. through it all ths not going to change anything. the government will be closed for how many hours? ultimately there will be no change in the text you see right now on the floor. >> thank you. i know you wanted to report more joyful news than this but i sure appreciate your candor and your

reporting on a business sirrer l night. she is a long-time republican has decided i'm done with this. he was just as candid in his quotes before deciding to leave congress. >> he along with 36 other house republicans and senate republicans who decided to hang up the shingle. it is not a fun place when you had ideas of going there and laying down core principals and creating good policy. that's the idea. what has happened the system is

working and grinds itself down to a stop. that's where we are right now. you think about this. >> like it's normal. >> what type of men and women are we sending to represent us? what type of women are prepared to do the heavy lifting? is that more important than the very things you listed? those folks that are on the front lines, beneath that are a lot of people who go to work to do very important things on behalf of the american people. in less than an hour they are going what do i do? do i go to work? do i not go to work? how much of my paycheck will be effected by this? i expect a more responsible repar response. they were there and cut the bipartisan deal. >> you have covered donald trump since the beginning.

where is donald trump literally and figuratively tonight? >> the lights are off. >> he may be asleep. >> he tells you what he is talking about is true. it is the second potential shutdown in 20 days. a couple of hours ago this has been the story of the presidency. >> this is where we are at. >> to a lot of people to what they are upset about it isn't the top thing. >> it is the one business where we the people are the customers

and boss. and talking about the boss, the question is how many phone calls have been placed from the white house tonight from the senate floor to get the senator to stand down. >> that's the leadership you need. >> that's good. >> that was very helpful. >> rand paul has tried to develop something. you would think if the white house thought to pick up the phone and say what can we do to move this along, but just rewind a couple of days. you have the president there with the cameras in the room saying we'll have a shutdown.

to the story eli just mentioned and our first break we are just getting started on this busy thursday night. when we come back, what is a widening crisis in the white house in the west wing. it is about the departure of another of the aids closest to this president.

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so to recap, on top of a government shutdown the white house is dealing with significant fallout of the resignation of rob porter. he left his position of two of his ex-wives accused him of physical and verbal abuse. the accusations were first reported by thedailymail.com. that the white house is insisting that kelly learn the whole truth yesterday.

concerns she shared with the fbi last year when they were conducting their background check of their husband. >> you told the fbi about your concerns about rob porter. what did you tell them? >> during the fbi background interview i shared with the fbi all of the details including access to a protective order from june of 2010 and police calls made to our home. >> so you told the fbi rob porter was abuser to you? >> yes. >> she said she fears for the

safety of hope hicks, the woman that has been in a dating relationship for rob porter. for his part porter denies the allegations and released a statement that reads in part these outrageous alligations are simply false. a man of integrity on tuesday but released a statement saying he was shocked by the allegations against porter and there is no place for domestic violence in our seat. -- society. they say a harsh spotlight is cast upon chief of staff john kelly. we want to bring in our panel to talk about this lead by raj day. she a former white house staff

secretary. he also happens to be former general council to the national security agency. kimberly atkins is back and brian bennett is back with us, reporter from the los angeles times. raj, thanks for being on with us. i'm afraid i have more than a few questions for you. job titles are usually grandiose. the office of policy planning is hugely important during normal times. tell us, was there anything you didn't see? >> simply put the role is to manage and review all written material to go to the president of the united states. think about things like

executive orders, decision memoranda, highly classified material. make sure it has been reviewed if appropriate and vice versa. >> i have to ask you about an ancillary issue and that's security clearance. the fbi does what they call in the trade a full field investigation. some times you have to put people on a fast track. some times presidents must be allowed to say i need this guy or this woman right now. can i hire them while you work on that? talk about your knowledge of this process and what it seems

like mr. porter was operating under while again touching and seeing and hearing all of these secrets. it's not unusual while you start the job. it is to have that clear lance status. i can't say i have heard of a similar instance. let's move to you. we have seen a memo come out

tonight from john kelly that reads like a memo from the ceo of any of the companies that have lately been deals with cases of harassment. it says to reach out to your supervisor. i have to ask, what if your supervisor is chief of staff and your supervisor is hope hicks? >> yeah. it shows how complex the problem is when you have someone who is in the white house who had temporary security clearance. you have the person in charge of creating the first communication about these allegations of abuse and the photographs that came

out. it complicated an already essential question which is what did the chief of staff john kelly know about this and when. you know, in legal standards. when you're talking about knowledge it is whether someone knew something or should have known something. they were only fully brought to him yesterday he should have known he should have known these existed even if it didn't. it is a problem all around. my question is how many others have temporary security clearances. it's a big problem for this

white house, how it handles itself in its staffing. >> and josh tweeted about this tonight. i wonder if we have this up in a control room mentioning one of the more notable people who is lacking a security clearance and that is kushner. so they are on the score board with another story that indicates the long knives are out for john kelly. there is one in here about the president showing frustration with hope hicks. it. >> is a diminishing asset.

that is the reason he was brought into this job. over the last several months there have been moments where his credibility has been called into question. he talked about robert e. lee. he now has issued the statement defending rob porter and had to walk it back. there is tons about his abuse. the very reason he is there is now called into question. you can imagine trump has been already at some of the patronizing statements kelly made about how trump has evolved in his ideas about the wall

because of briefings that kelly gave him. this is in the washington post. it's about white house council. in january 2017 when he learned of the allegations he wanted porter to stay put because he saw the capitol hill veteran. it is according to people familiar with the matter. his view didn't change in june when the fbi flagged some of the findings to the white house for did he act in december when he learned they were porter's security clearance or in november when porter's former girlfriend contacted him about the allegations? >> i can certainly understand

why a calm demeanor is a premium asset. for all of these jobs they are all about integrity and judgment. i really don't know what to say about that. >> it has been talked about over the past 48 hours. people have said various versions. porter looked like a republican recruitment poster. the guy went to harvard law school scholar. the work porter is the only part

that people knew and it differs so widely with the man accused of serial abuse. >> the persona is what took so long for john kelly and others to come out with a statement condemning the behavior that he is accused of. it has this idea that people who commit abusive acts are often very charming in their workplaces. day don't go into their workplace saying hey, i hit my wife yesterday. it is sort of an offset of the movement. as long as he denies it it gives people cover not to act

immediately. >> we haven't seen or heard much from the president. we go into another day tomorrow. the schedule shows no public events. >> yes. another thing that has been called into question is it's just a vetting of people who come into this white house. again, it is something that the chief of staff is responsible for. it is not distracted by other types of scandals and it's his job to know if there are skeletons in the closet. either he did that vetting and knew about it and kept it internal or he didn't do that

proper vetting and it wasn't being done. >> before we lose you i want one more question. i have always said that having been lucky enough, when you get outside the oval office and you get ready to walk in the world seems to slow down and get very quiet. the walls are thicker. our friend steve schmit talks about the lack is now being talked about because of the occupant and his past and this is one more knick on the still young administration? >> it is to ironic the job is about the focus of the organization.

it couldn't be more poetic in that regard. >> thank you. we'll head for another break. we are continuing our live coverage of this looming less than a half hour to go before we witness another government shutdown as the white house battles other battles on government fronts. stay with me, mr. parker. the at&t network is helping first responders connect with medical teams in near real time... stay with me, mr. parker. ...saving time when it matters most. stay with me, mrs. parker. that's the power of and. but prevagen helps your brain with an ingredient originally discovered... in jellyfish. in clinical trials, prevagen has been shown

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sounds like it was recorded in prison but he was delivering remarks there. you heard former president george w. bush making it clear in his view he has no trouble accepting that russians interfered in the u.s. election. bush having mostly stayed out of the political limelight delivered those comments during a conference. there were no cameras allowed. joe biden had strong words for the current administration. he has been on the tour and spoke with andrea mitchell

earlier today. >> i can't fathom while the president as a patriotic american would not be looking for every single bit of data and evidence that would show what they were doing and what they are continuing to attempt to do. putin must be sitting behind his december. >> the comments wait to see that refutes the republican memo accusing the justice department of all around misconduct. president trump has until saturday to decide. the gop memo lead to new reporting tonight from politi l politicalthis says the fbi was monitoring carter page when the

former trump campaign says he spoke about russia in january of 2017 raising the strong possibility that the fbi intercepted a conversation. page told congress about the call. it has been cast into a new light bannon is not accused of any wrong doing but he is under subpoena from the house intelligence committee and expected to speak next week. all of this is by way of saying we asked kimberly atkins and brian bennett to rejoin us here. why is there not as much around this one and what are expectations about what is in it according to the best reporting? >> you know you have to remember

they used it as some sort of witch hunt to destroy his presidency. that he would be eager to release something that refutes all of that, it is not a surprise to me that it hasn't been released yet. this is in addition to the fact that it seems to be the gifts that the president is making regarding the russia investigation or throwing other

monkey wrenches in. because of this we know carter page was under surveillance. we know that the surveillance could have picked up steve bannona in the white house. the memo revealed that the investigation wasn't started by this infamous that it was actually comments made by geo e george. it undercuts as much as it supported the notion that it was some sort of endeavor to undermine him. >> and for our viewers, as we go back to the unmasking, when someone is collateral damage in eves dropping, if your conversation with someone else gets recorded they are usually listed in the transcript as a u.s. person unless and until they say hey, who is that? i need to know. it is because of what they said back. so i want today get that on the record. brian, there is an excitement gap between the republican and the democratic memo.

we should be candid and say fox news kind of rolled out a campaign of coverage aimed at getting the republican memo revealed. i looked up three separate occasions tonight. i saw them doing macy's, clintons and the uranium one scandal. and most recently confederate mon mo monuments in new orleans. >> well, if you look at these two memos and how they have come out to the public, i mean you can see that there is a

masterful disinformation campaign that has been waged here. you had the news cycle dominated last week by the republican memo. articles and articles written about what it might say. it will kind of send a letter to congress to allow that memo to be released tomorrow or saturday. but in the meantime the initial revelations and accusations came out in the first republican memo have been allowed to hang out there and drift. you know, this is part of a larger campaign that the president has launched. it's really interesting that george w. bush who has been nearly silent for so long did come out and say he believes in the elections.

and the fact is that the inocul public by getting more information how it was done in the past. in order to do that, we need to know more about ways that you are you know, promoting fake news and trying to influence voters' decisions. and the more information that the public knows about the investigation, how it happened in the past, the less likely it is that russia could have a similar impact on future elections. >> greg, thanks tonight. brian bennett. kimberly atkins, appreciate your contributions to our conversation this even. one final break for us as we approach this midnight witching hour, and the shutdown that however long or short, is startings at midnight. when we come back, a former star of reality television speaking about another who happens to be our current president. hold together.

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what can a president [ do in thirty seconds? he can fire an fbi director who won't pledge his loyalty. he can order the deportation of a million immigrant children. he can threaten an unstable dictator armed with nuclear weapons. he can go into a rage and enter the nuclear launch codes. how bad does it have to get before congress does something?

every critic, every detractor, will have to bow down to president trump. it's everyone who has ever doubted donald, whoever disagreed, whoever challenged him. >> that gets your attention. that was omarosa in 2016 on frontline, right before the presidential election. the former apprentice cast member developed a loyalty to donald trump that led to her appointment to that title, director of communications at the office of public liaison. but after less than a year at the white house, omarosa is back on reality television, where it all started for her. and she is back in the news because of what we're about to show you. as one does after leaving a west wing job, omarosa is currently a contestant on celebrity big brother. and in this scene you are about

to see with her house mate who came to came as ross the intern on the jay leno tonight show. omarosa talks about her time in the trump white house. >> i was haunted by tweets every single day, like what is he going to tweet next. >> does anybody say to him, what are you doing? >> i tried to be that person? who has that power to say what's going on? >> no. not there. it's not my -- it's not my circus, not my monkeys. i like to say not my problem, but i can't say that, because it's bad. >> shoe we be worried? >> oh, don't say that. because we are worried but i need you to say, no it's going to be okay. >> no it's going to not be okay.

it's not. >> would you vote for him again? >> god no. never. in a million years, never. >> it's not her -- i'm sorry, it's not her circus and not her monkeys was the quote that. that was omarosa and ross from celebrity big brother. we are free to speak in normal tones here in the studio as we remember that our president came to the white house after years as a reality television star. having said, that here is how the trump white house reacted today to omarosa. >> she was fired three times on the apprentice. and this is the fourth time we let her go. she had limited contact with the president while here. she has no contact now. >> from podium and the white house briefing room, back with us to talk about what is going on currently is michael steele and eli stokels. >> i'm sorry. >> i have watched you now react

to this at 4:00 and at the shank of the evening here four minutes from mitd midnight. >> he says she was fired three times at the apprentice, and now here. i'm sorry, the white house is not the apresident present tis. >> why does the white house press secretary even know how many times she has been fired on a reality tv show? why. >> this is the crazy drama that the country is getting sucked up into. every day is another episode. almost every hour is a new chapter within that episode. and what we just saw -- you know it's crazy. oh, my god, oh, my god. please, spare me, that's not the attitude you had walking around washington for almost a year. >> you get the final 30 seconds. >> it's something they probably filmed five times to get the drama right. you speak up back. omarosa said one thing when she was in washington now she is saying this. ross shaw, he is up there defending this white house today and dumping on omarosa. and what was revealed this week?

that his texts when the access hollywood tape came out, when he donald trump was a deplorable and he texted a friend he was enjoying it. you have to wonder, if the people have qualms working for this president, why do they take the job. it's access to power but they leave with even less personal capital they went in with. >> we are exactly two minutes until the next government shut down which we know will now automatically happen at 12:00 eastern time. garrett haake is on capitol hill. do you have anything else to report prior to this deadline, which i know kicks off a number of hours of debates and votes and then back to the house? >> brian it's ultimately rand paul's call how long he wants to make this go over the next couple of years as the senate floor reopens here in the next few minutes. senators will likely again ask for unanimous consent to go straight to the vote.

rand paul could decide he has made his point and he is ready to let that happen but that's not in keeping with what we have seen from the junior senator from kentucky. we expect him to take at least the next hour to continue making his point about debt and definite fits before this vote happened in the senate. again, this was supposed to be the easy part in getting this bill passed today. >> garrett, one minute to off air. do you have every reason to believe this shut down will be measured in hours? or is there a chance we are talking days? >> there is always a chance. brian, again that was supposed to sail through the senate. there was a comfortable cushion of votes on the senate side. in the house they have a different set of problems. house conservatives don't like this deal because of everything that's in it. they think it spend tens of billions of dollars too much on domestic spending. and house democrats don't like it because of what is not in it. there is still no immigration deal. they could take a cue from rand paul and decide they want to

drig drag it out. nothing is guaranteed. >> our thanks to garrett haake, to michael steele, to eli stokels. and thank you for joining us for our broadcast this even. up next, our live coverage of your government at work or not, this pending government shutdown at the very moment, it tibs. a live edition of the rachel maddow show. rachel it's all yours. >> thank you brian. it seems we either meet on dramatic nights or bad nights. >> where this one stands is now entirely up to you. >> thank you my friend. appreciated. much thanks to you at home joining us this hour. at midnight on the east coast for the second time in two weeks the government of the united states is shut down. we of course have had government shutdowns before. before three weeks ago, we had never had a government shutdown while the same political party controlled the white house and both house of congress. but now we have two of those in qu